In the summer of 1777, while the British and the Americans were engaged in the bitter American Revolution, a massive campaign was launched from Canada into New York State.

Prisoners with natives and Butler’s Rangers

Brigadier Barry St. Leger led a crucial expedition from Lake Ontario into the Mohawk Valley. The goal was to travel by waterways to join Lieutenant General John Burgoyne in the siege of Albany. But Leger encountered obstacles along the way. While laying siege to Fort Stanwix, Leger received word that Benedict Arnold was leading a massive relief column that was headed their way. Leger and his men retreated, and despite a later attempt to carry on, were never able to help Burgoyne. The Americans then destroyed the British-held Fort Ticonderoga, marking the end of the campaign.

Battle of Oriskany

The results of the failed St. Leger expedition were historic. Not only was the loss of Fort Ticonderoga was a major blow to the British war effort, but the campaign also brought about the disillusionment of the Iroquois Confederacy, and saw the founding of the infamous Butler’s Rangers and the first major campaign of Sir John Johnson’s King’s Royal Regiment.

The book by Gavin Watt is the definitive work on this often forgotten camapign. It is full of quotes and original source material and is not an easy read, however if you are interested in that period of history is a must have.

The campaign reminds me a bit of the old Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda movie that I have on DVD. Like most of John Ford’s films, Drums Along the Mohawk is loosely based on historical events. A central feature of the plot is the Battle of Oriskany, a pivotal engagement of the Saratoga campaign during the American Revolutionary War, in which a British contingent drove southward from Canada in an attempt to occupy the Hudson Valley and isolate Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts from the remaining colonies. A second, smaller force called the St. Leger Expedition, traveled down the St Lawrence, across Lake Ontario, and marched across the Mohawk Valley heading from the west, and besieged Fort Schuyler, now better known under its original, prewar name of Fort Stanwix.